Reward offered to catch Claremont cemetery vandals

About 75 headstones have been vandalized at the West Pleasant Street Cemetery in Claremont. A reward has been offered for information that leads to the arrest of the vandals. (Meghan Pierce Photo)

CLAREMONT — Citizens outraged by the vandalism that occurred at the West Pleasant Street Cemetery last week have stepped forward with $1,000 in reward money.

The police department is offering the privately funded reward money “for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for this senseless act of destruction,” Police Chief Alexander Scott said in an announcement of the reward Thursday afternoon.

About 75 gravestones were vandalized in the West Pleasant Street Cemetery between Friday and Saturday.

“Citizens are quite outraged,” Scott said in a phone interview. “At least three citizens have come forward to pledge their money.”

And since the announcement of the reward, Scott said he has received several other phone calls from citizens who said they would support a reward financially as well.

“It’s an older section of the cemetery so there are some headstones that are quite old and have been damaged and will need some repair work done to them,” Scott said.

Other headstones were simply knocked over, he said.

The cost of repairing the damages is estimated to be several thousand dollars.

Police are actively investigating the vandalism and are asking people with any information or anyone who saw something suspicious in the area to report it to police at (603) 542-9538.